Happy First Birthday to Facebook Workplace

That Facebook chose to dress its Workplace in grey instead of its iconic blue colour, may be a statement about how it views the world of work. Grey is serious. Work for many of us is a necessary part of life and sometimes omits life’s most vivid moments. Grey is all about putting one foot in front of the other and trudging ahead. This application is just another stage in the Facebookism of the entire digital spectrum. The homogenisation of the world wide web into various Facebook apps. Fast food for phones, tablets and computers, all ordered from the same menu.

Happy First Birthday to Facebook Workplace

Facebook Workplace is basically the Facebook skin clothing a bunch of apps, designed to facilitate the intranet networking between colleagues and clients on a cloud based platform. It is the social media giants first foray into the serious world of work. Its success was predicated on the assumed familiarity with the set-up, with billions of Facebook users around the globe. Could it take something associated with downtime and establish it in the corridors of corporations during office hours. So, how is it going after one year at the coal face?

Well, in the US, Walmart has just signed up and they have 2.2 million staff globally. Already, according to Facebook there are more than 14 000 organisations using Workplace around the world. Bookmakers are using it, banks are using it, but there are still some teething problems around inflexible terms and conditions, according to Craig Le Chair VP at Forrester in the US. He calls it, “a lack of maturity in enterprise agreements”. Building trust in this area will take time; Rome was not built in a day after all. Facebook has resisted connecting up with third-party applications from other digital giants like Microsoft’s Office and Dropbox, but integration is now happening.

Deleting rubbish is never easy, wherever you are, Facebook Workplace will learn from mistakes, just like everyone else. It is a process of hit and miss with some apps. Facebook Workplace allows employees to get out and about in the marketplace and still access what’s important. Sydney hangouts might surprise some, when looking for spots to catch up on news outside of the office or workplace. The trend continues for work to take place in undefined localities and for all the tools of the office to sit snugly in your hand or pocket.